The trial of litter picker machines has been effective in cleaning narrow lanes in seven civic zones. So, the civic authorities have decided to procure an additional 21 such vehicles for the city. The vehicle-mounted machine with a telescopically extendable hose helps to clean parking areas, open dumps, beaches and parks.
The civic workers clean and wash the busiest roads in the city daily in order to settle dust. Last year, in December, the BMC introduced a litter-picking machine on a pilot basis to clean areas that are inaccessible.
"It’s difficult to clean places like parking areas and beaches"
"Sweeping is being extensively done in a mechanised way, but it’s difficult to clean places like parking areas and beaches. The litter picker machine reaches out and sucks all the waste. The machine has been successfully used in seven zones, so we have decided to procure one machine each for all the administrative wards," said Sanjog Kabre, deputy municipal commissioner (incharge of solid waste management department).
What does these picker machines do?
Its telescopically extendable hose can suck plastic cups, plates, broken pieces of glass, paper waste, bottles and coconut shells, to name a few items. The BMC will also be using this machine to pick up waste from roadside dust bins, footpaths, parks. The machine has a facility to segregate dry and wet waste. It has a storage capacity of 1,420 liters which will be emptied into another container.
The length of the pipe for such waste is 9.3 feet and can be rotated up to 240 degrees. The cost of each machine is around Rs40 lakh and an agency is appointed to operate and maintain the machines for a year.
